A post-traumatic tactical fantasy RPG

Uncategorised

Writing down my initial combat concept – this will need a pile of refinement, and it will work best on a grid, but we ought to see how the action interplay occurs with plain `ol theatre of the mind (to make things easier, we’ll handwave range).

Meandering down the road, Tobin decides to take a shortcut to get to his favourite hideaway, the Drunken Squirrel. Cutting through an alley, he’s acosted by two Street Thugs, who demand his money.

The encounter begins, with each side rolling initiative, which is determined by summing your tier die and Response attribute.

Sir Tobin the (Overpopulated) Human Rogue:

d6 (5) + 2 = 7

A couple of street thugs:

d6 (3) + 1 = 4

Round One

Tobin rolls a tier die to determine his force modifier for the round. He rolls a 2.
Thugs one and two roll a 5 and a 6, respectively.

Having won initiative, Tobin chooses to act first (if he was confident in his counter-attacks, he could decide to allow his opponents the first move); he uses a light missile weapon and the Pin-Point Accuracy attack against one of the Thugs (Thug One), who’s still at the opposite end of the alley. His attack has a total force score of 7 (Roll 2 + Response 2 + Action 3).

Pin-Point Accuracy:

Adventurer Tier – Attack – Melee, Ranged

Momentum – Both

R3

Damage – [1W]+1/[2W]+2/[3W]+3

Light Missile Weapon:

Ranged Weapon – One handed

Damage 1

Range 5

Since the street Thug does not have a counterattack with the deflect property, there’s nothing he can do about the knife. It hits, dealing 1[W] (1) + 1 damage. Thug One has 2 hit points, so he’s knocked out of the fight.

Pin-Point Accuracy is marked as exhausted; Tobin cannot use the action again unless it is refreshed at the beginning of a combat round.

The second Thug closes distance, attacking Tobin with Merciless Stab.

Merciless Stab:

Attack – Melee, Ranged

Momentum – forward

Force 2

Damage – 1

Combining his roll with the action’s force value, his attack a total force of 8. Tobin doesn’t have a class ability that he can use in response (his one high-scoring action, Shot in the Back, requires that someone else be engaging the Thug as well). He considers selecting a default action, such as Parry-riposte, but his roll at the beginning of the round was so low that his total force won’t be high enough to successfully counter the attack.

Tobin suffers one damage, dropping his hit points to 3.

Round Two

Tobin is able to refresh one action per tier. Since he’s only used one (Pin-Point Attack), it is refreshed by default.

Tobin rolls a tier die to determine his force modifier for the round. He rolls a 5.
Thug two rolls a 5.

Tobin still has initiative, and he selects Thrust as his attack.

Thrust:

Adventurer Tier – Attack – Melee

Momentum – Forward

WCTR 2

Damage – [1W]/[2W]/[3W]

Tobin’s total force for this action is 9 (Roll 5 + Response 2 + Action 2). As a default action, Thrust is not exhausted.

The Thug attempts to counter his assault, opting to use his defensive ability, Duck and Weave.

Duck and Weave:

Counterattack – Melee

Momentum – Both

Force 4

Damage – 1

The Thug’s total force value is 9 (Roll 5 + Action 4). Given that the force scores are equivalent, each adversary will suffer damage from their opponent’s action.

Not wanting to be more bruised than necessary, Tobin decides to continue the fight. Rummaging through his available actions, Tobin settles on Parry-Riposte, which is a default counterattack with a high Response score.

Parry-Riposte:

Adventurer Tier – Counterattack – Melee

Momentum – Both

W2R3

Damage – [1W]/[2W]/[3W]

Tobin’s force score for Parry Riposte is 10 (Roll 5 + Response 2 + Action 3). His force score is higher than the Thug’s, and with no further actions available, the Thug is hit, suffering the effects of the action.

The Thug drops to one hit point.

Round Three

Tobin has no actions to refresh this round, as he only relied upon defaults in round two.

Tobin rolls a tier die to determine his force modifier for the round. He rolls a 3.
Thug two rolls a 1.

Tired of all this fighting, Tobin selects Brutal Knifing.

Brutal Knifing:

Adventurer Tier – Attack – Melee

Momentum – Forward

R3

Damage – [2W]/[4W]/[6W]

With a force score of 8 (Roll 3 + Response 2 + Action 3), Tobin’s attack cannot be defeated by the Thug (his only available counterattack has a force score of 4, which is not sufficient to stop the attack). Thug Two suffers 2 damage, dropping his hit points to -1. He is defeated.

Exhausted, and bleeding from some minor wounds, Tobin limps off to the Drunken Squirrel.

Finally, we get around to picking Tobin’s class. Ever since he lost his estate, he’s developed some rage issues, and is quick to rush into combat to express his emotional turmoil in the form of a stabbin`. As a speedy Rogue, Tobin gains +1 to Response and 4 hit points. He has learned Thievery (+3) and Stealth (+1).

He’s also picked up a few tricks in his time: Shot in the Back, Pin-Point Accuracy, and Brutal Knifing are all important abilities of his. He’s also quite competent in Light Weapons, Light Missile Weapons, Heavy Missile Weapons, and Light Armour.